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Perhaps since his identity was found quickly, he didn't want to wait for a long time until the players had enough levels to challenge him? Just my thought

As Kirito said: "Nothing's more boring than watching someone else play an RPG." He already knew from last time that Kirito would take the bait anyway. (Typical protagonist flaw: "Nobody calls me chicken!" )

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

You are aware that proper writing doesn't work that way, right? What you're describing here is every poor writing.

Honestly, it's describing most of the more popular and well-known works of fiction throughout history. In the grand scheme of things, I would say that this story (so far) has done pretty well at foreshadowing plot developments and ensuring that things that seem like oddities earlier on come back later and are put into context. So I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, though I respect that others may not feel the same way.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Awrya

I wish they had changed the duel a bit, saying he won't rely on sword skills and using them 5 seconds later (/facepalm).
It'd have made more sense for him to realise his mistake after activating his skill, followed by a monologue.

Actually, what you just said is what happened. As soon as he did it, you can hear a change his tone of voice (a sort of unspoken "oh crap"), and then there was a monologue where he apologized to Asuna and said that at least she should live.

That studio fail, "Chaged into Immortal Object", google translate would have done a better job. Hope they'll fix it in BD, otherwise it's just too sad

I wish they had changed the duel a bit, saying he won't rely on sword skills and using them 5 seconds later (/facepalm).
It'd have made more sense for him to realise his mistake after activating his skill, followed by a monologue.

That plothole, Asuna's HP dropped to zero and her avatar vanished. According to Ep.1, her brain should have been fried, there was a two minute animation gap between her death and Heathcliffs' (~40 seconds between her death and Heathcliff wounding Kirito). Yet we see her still alive standing on the platform.

Kayaba Akihiko, if he had a short beard I'd have called him the younger brother of mad scientist, Hououin Kyoma!

Next episode, "Return", will probably focus on their real life after SAO.

For me it looked like Kirito accidentally started his sword skill, which just happened to be the longest possible combo of 27 hits "The Eclipse", entirely possible to accidentally start it when swinging around with swords.

You are aware that proper writing doesn't work that way, right? What you're describing here is every poor writing.

Not everything has to have an encyclopedia of background information on why something happens or why something is.

Like when Kirito reveals he has a little sister during the one little story. Its just a detail, but Kirito has a little sister because that's how he's written in regards to his character. The story doesn't need to go into why he has a little sister, and how his parents met up, how he was born, how she was born ect.

Its like finishing reading a bedtime story to a kid, and instead of going to sleep, the kid ends up asking all these random questions about the story that really doesn't matter to the type of story its trying to tell.

The work is fiction, like most fantasy, it only has enough to make things plausible, but leaves enough room for the author to direct things to complete a story.

2) Seems like some hand-waving over how Kirito beat the game, but the show has been fairly good about seeming to ignore things (Heathcliff's stopping time in his duel with Kirito-which I'm happy to see was what I had thought was the cause back then), and then coming back to the issue in a later episode, so I'm going to hold off on the pitchforks for now.

3) I had the pleasure of being bed-ridden for almost a year. Let me say that the physical therapy required for me to just re-learn how to walk, nevermind actually walking, then running, etc was no joke. There's no way Kirito would be up and walking after his ordeal.

5) The shift from the end of episode 13, full of despair as they hadn't hardly moved the boss' hp bars, to how easy it all was at the start of episode 14 was a bit jarring.

6) With 4k people dead already, the angst over 14 seemed a bit out of place. Repeated exposure hardens people emotionally. Just the way life works.

7) That scene after Kirito asked for Asuna to be unkillable, and we see the sign that says "Changed to Immortal Object"...how does that jive with Asuna then being...killed? I guess this folds back into the hand-waving part of #2, which I will wait to see if it is explained at a later date.

8) Thematically, I thought the author should have chosen the other sword to break. Having the one that we spent an entire episode on over themes of friendship and love and not being alone being the one to break, as silly as it sounds, seemed so disrespectful to all of that.

A part of me has to wonder, though, is it really over? I feel like there was a lot of insinuated story within the game world that never saw the light of day. For instance, I really expected the pvp guild/players aspect to have reared its head at some point in the story, as so much of the earlier episodes seemed to be aimed at laying groundwork for future plot, and that's one aspect who's framework was laid, but never seemed to rear its head like so much of the other game mechanics.

Plus, if it is really over, are we really going to spend 10 more episodes (assuming the anime is 24 episodes long), on Kirito and crew catching up in Real Life?

6) With 4k people dead already, the angst over 14 seemed a bit out of place. Repeated exposure hardens people emotionally. Just the way life works.

I think the angst here was because the 14 people who died were among the best players they gathered to beat this high-level boss, and they already lost the first round of people who tried. So the context was that they still had 25 floors to go, and taking these sorts of losses of high-level players makes it less likely that they'll be able to clear the game.

For me it looked like Kirito accidentally started his sword skill, which just happened to be the longest possible combo of 27 hits "The Eclipse", entirely possible to accidentally start it when swinging around with swords.

Not so much accidentally as by reflex,I think. Sword skills are what he trained to use.

Actually, what you just said is what happened. As soon as he did it, you can hear a change his tone of voice (a sort of unspoken "oh crap"), and then there was a monologue where he apologized to Asuna and said that at least she should live.

Quote:

Originally Posted by creb

3) I had the pleasure of being bed-ridden for almost a year. Let me say that the physical therapy required for me to just re-learn how to walk, nevermind actually walking, then running, etc was no joke. There's no way Kirito would be up and walking after his ordeal.

The power of love~

Quote:

Originally Posted by creb

7) That scene after Kirito asked for Asuna to be unkillable, and we see the sign that says "Changed to Immortal Object"...how does that jive with Asuna then being...killed? I guess this folds back into the hand-waving part of #2, which I will wait to see if it is explained at a later date.

That was studio fail, Kayaba said he'll remove his [Immortal Object] status, so it should have been [Changed to Mortal Object]. If you look closely, they wrote Changed as Chaged.

I was thinking more like activating sword skill, realize mistake and monologue how Kayaba designed and know all his skills.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Well done, SAO, well done. May you always continue to be cheesy enough that Code Geass' C.C. could never get enough of you.

I prefer to discuss it rather than just come to the foregone conclusion that "the series relies on quite a few ass-pulls, that's a fact". If things aren't clear, then discussing our interpretation of events and seeing if the story itself proves them either correct or incorrect seem to me like a pretty valid line of conversation.

Kazu-kun does seem to pull the "My college professors told me what is and isn't good writing, and since my college told me this that means it's the absolute truth and there's no room for differening viewpoints" card an awful lot. :/

Quote:

Originally Posted by Triple_R

This might be the cheesiest anime episode I've ever watched.

I so, so want to see "SAO: The Abridged Series" just to see somebody like LittleKuriboh have an absolute field day with this episode.

Do I think it's bad? Well, I can certainly see why some would think so.

But for me, SAO embraces its own Grade A Gouda Goodness with such impeccable sincerity that it actually kinda works. In its own way, it deserves an applause...

Well done, SAO, well done. May you always continue to be cheesy enough that Code Geass' C.C. could never get enough of you.

Well, that was an unexpected response. :( I thought it was a genuinely powerful, moving episode and didn't find it cheesy at all.

the action as always was impressive, but the whole incident death of kirito and asuna was cheap, its was the literal description of "deux ex machina", i can see that working better in the light novel since it migth fit on the "unreliable narrator" trick, though its possible for further episodes to provide a good reason for these events, other than for dramatic effect.

That was studio fail, Kayaba said he'll remove his [Immortal Object] status, so it should have been [Changed to Mortal Object]. If you look closely, they wrote Changed as Chaged.

Ah, that scene makes so much more sense now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Awrya

I was thinking more like activating sword skill, realize mistake and monologue how Kayaba designed and know all his skills.

That part had me wondering if the combat in SA:O isn't quite as awesome as it seemed, if most player's moves are actually just the equivalent of pressing a button, as the insinuation seemed to be that scripted moves were part of combat. I always assumed up 'till now that this was a truly free-form combat system where the players were 100% required to move on their own.

Perfect. The best anime in all world and history. No flaw whatsoever because any criticism can, have, and will be answered by the ever vigilant brigade of the fans to be proven wrong. Anyone who says otherwise is dead wrong, has inferior taste (my taste>your taste), and is a heretic that shall be put down by the hammers of fandom. Praise the show or stfu.In case it isn't clear, that is sarcasm and not meant to be taken seriously
In all honesty, this show has really been enjoyable. Have a beer

I thought it was a genuinely powerful, moving episode and didn't find it cheesy at all.

When conventions of storytelling are used they are here - well-worn and more symbolic and emotional than "grounded" - work really well on me. The moment with everyone talking and looking down on the sky talked of greater things and, I felt, delivered on them. Or maybe it's because I can take "cheesy" and silly things the most seriously of all.

Seemed perfectly normal to me. A long term patient like Kirito isn't going to be housed in the ER. He's going to be stuck in a quiet, out of the way wing, where it'd be quite easy to go down the hallway, without seeing anyone in the hallway, until you reached the nurse's station. The nurses are likely all in rooms checking on the people that woke up before Kirito, so no one was available to rush to Kirito when he got up.

Kazu-kun does seem to pull the "My college professors told me what is and isn't good writing, and since my college told me this that means it's the absolute truth and there's no room for differening viewpoints" card an awful lot. :/

Wow, easy there. Why the personal attack? Did I kill you puppy or something?

That part had me wondering if the combat in SA:O isn't quite as awesome as it seemed, if most player's moves are actually just the equivalent of pressing a button, as the insinuation seemed to be that scripted moves were part of combat. I always assumed up 'till now that this was a truly free-form combat system where the players were 100% required to move on their own.

Any time you see their swords glow, that's them activating a system assisted move. Kirito was explaining this to Klein back in episode 1. So yeah, there's free form combat, but there's also "special moves", aka sword skills. With sword skills being generally higher damage.